Graduates step through the Van Wickle Gates during Sunday's Commencement procession down College Street.

Amidst the celebration of Brown’s 250th anniversary, the University awarded 2,440 diplomas Sunday to the class of 2014, including 1,594 bachelor’s degrees.

The ceremonies began Saturday with the Baccalaureate service held at the Meeting House of the First Baptist Church in America. The service included prayers from major faiths and artistic performances celebrating the diverse cultural heritage of the graduating class.

Nalini Nadkarni ’76, professor of biology at the University of Utah, gave the Baccalaureate address. As an ecologist, Nadkarni studies tree canopies in the rainforest and advocates for the protection of the trees’ habitats.

Throughout her talk, Nadkarni used trees as a motif, tracing their role in many religious traditions and even inviting trees to join in the ceremony.

She reflected on the unorthodox ecology-related programs she has started — having prison inmates raise endangered plants and animals, inviting artists into the canopy and teaching tattoo artists how to draw biologically correct trees.

When she received the invitation to speak at Baccalaureate, Nadkarni said, she thought the University had made a mistake, given the nonlinear path she has taken in her career. “Know if the straight path between Earth and sky is appropriate for you,” she advised the new graduates.

Toward the end of her speech, she encouraged graduates to take out their phones and send a “flash tweet” of their dreams and goals, accompanied by the hashtag #Brown2014.

On Sunday morning, the undergraduate class of 2014 marched out through the Van Wickle Gates and reconvened the College Ceremony at the First Baptist Church, where President Christina Paxson officially granted them bachelor’s degrees.

In her remarks, Paxson compared the brief ceremony to those of past centuries when the service included 20 speeches and all students, family members and community members could fit into the church. Though those days are over, Paxson said the University’s values of social justice, dedication to the humanities and global outlook have endured.

All graduating students then gathered on the Main Green for the University Commencement service. Caroline Bologna ’14 and Joshua Block ’14 gave orations for the senior class.

Bologna spoke about the overwhelming experience of attending the Activities Fair as a first-year, in a talk entitled “Labels.” She urged graduates to look beyond assigning labels to themselves and others based on what activities they join. “I can’t begin to characterize myself as a particular type of person,” she said.

Her experiences in classes transcended those labels and made her aware of the limitations of what she knew, she said.

“We didn’t come to Brown to find answers,” Bologna said. “We came to Brown to come up with better questions.”

In his talk, entitled “Listen,” Block encouraged graduates to seek out and listen to the opinions of others, particularly those with opposing viewpoints. “We understand there aren’t two sides to every argument, there are fifty.”

Congratulations to the Brown graduates! I’m particularly impressed by the large number of people who started, then finished with a degree. With all the trials and tribulations of being a late teen + those of being at Brown, that’s quite an accomplishment!

Now, new grads, work with us to reform Brown.

john p

this is getting tiresome from you

johnlonergan

$59,000 per year tuition
40% choose to go somewhere else
87% of applicants are from the US, which represents 4% of the world’s population
most Brown graduates are not at the level of prestige or accomplishment of those graduating from elsewhere.

If you’re happy with the above, please, continue to support Brown as-is.
If you’re unhappy with the above, join us.

Whee

False dichotomy

johnlonergan

Deep. A four-syllable word! You’ve done your work for today.

Let’sdumbitdownforyou

Good job responding!

But then, we knew that you were never very good at making sense. Here’s a hint. Just because someone doesn’t buy what you’re selling, doesn’t mean they are happy with what they have.

johnlonergan

Two kinds of people. Those who talk and those who achieve. Where do you place yourself on that spectrum?